Comoros, today is your National Day! Let's celebrate it

July 6, 2017

Today, 6 July, the Comoros is celebrating its National Day, the day in which the country declared independence from France 42 years ago. To commemorate this historic event, what could Forvo do? Well, nothing less than including the four languages that are used in this country: Ngazidja, Ndzwani, Maore and Mwali.

Each language is spoken in one of the four islands that form the country. Consequently, Ndzwani (also called Shindzuani) is spoken in Anjouan, Maore or Shimaore in Mayotte, Mwali or Shimwali in Mohéli and Ngazidja or Shingazija in Grande Comore. The first two languages are part of the eastern group, while the western group is composed of the last two languages. Even though the the four languages share an important number of words, they are not mutually intelligible.

With regard to the alphabet, historically, these languages used the Arabic script, until the French colonial administration introduced the Latin alphabet. However, nowadays, the Arabic script is still in use and literacy in this script is higher than in the Latin script.